Nas reveals Life is Good tracklist

It’s finally here. Nas has had a hype storm brewing for his 10th LP, essentially, since he dropped Distant Relatives with Damian Marley in 2010. For some time, many thought Life is Good would arrive last year, not to mention that it should have arrived with a different name, as Nas had assured a title change.

Well, it stuck, and here we are. With a gestation period under such scrutiny for so long, it’s inevitable certain things would be missing, and others added. Yet, how’d it all shape up, now that we have the tracklist?

Sadly, in contrast to the to die for list of producers whose beats were under consideration for the project, only a few appear. This isn’t to say we don’t finally have another true Nasty classic on our hands, it simply no longer appears the unstoppable behemoth of a rap album many had once hoped for. Missing is the promised AZ feature, while Nas instead found room for Rick Ross. Not to take away from Rozay, but wouldn’t a reunion with his old friend have meant more than ghostwritten bid for popularity points?

Thankfully, the lesser producers once hinted at didn’t make the record: there’s (thank God) no Alex da Kid track, and so on. Boi-1da only makes the bonus tracks, but this is made somewhat more disheartening with DJ Premier, Just Blaze, Q-Tip, Pete Rock, RZA, and many more having submitted beats, only to be completely absent from the project. With No I.D. and Salaam Remi handling the majority of the production, along with Swizz Beatz, it simply seems we have a forward thinking album on our hands, rather than the throwback record Nas had once promised. Here’s to hoping it’s fantastic, regardless.